Weather not to be missed..

You know the long winter has kicked in when a nice day becomes an event you just have to celebrate. Two weeks ago we had the most beautiful weather we have seen for a while - very cold and frosty, but sunny and clear and fresh. We went for a kick about on the beach, and picked up Michaela and her Dad on the way, they were out enjoying the weather too. Even the sand was frosted over, and the kids had a good time trying to play football.

Bathtime fun

A few days ago, we opened the letters and postbox set for the bath that Santa got Owen for Christmas, and he really enjoyed swimming about in them.

They kept getting stuck to him, and we labelled him OJ, but he wasn't too impressed with that.

He soon got back to enjoying himself though. His Dad was very impressed with his spelling. When Owen picked an O, alex was impressed that he picked his initial, and said 'Oooh', then Owen took another O and an H, and spelled out Ooh on the bath. Possibly an accident, possibly a (well-hidden) genius, who knows?

He has a new favourite dinner, which is not very healthy but he gets to have it sometimes. He loves the beans, and the sausages go in whole and sideways, we will have to try and get a photo of that sometime!

Auntie Carol Ann sent a cookbook for Christmas, which has a recipe for homemade baked beans, so we might try that sometime. Dad has been learning to cook family meals, too, and making a great job of it. Last night's leek and bacon pie was delicious! While Dad has been learning to be Mum, Owen has been learning to be Dad.

I guess Mum better try some other roles, maybe turn into Dad and try making the cups of tea for a change!

Well, the blog is back.. by popular request. It has been so long since I was on here, that I haven't even put any pictures up from Halloween. Believe it or not, this is the best photo of Owen we have in his full bat suit. He really didn't like wearing the head piece.


We don't even have any good pictures of the party in full swing, so we will fastforward to Christmas time. Here is a picture of the snacks we left out , on our cosy Christmas Eve, which was when poor Dad started with his tummy bug.

Of course, we made sure that the fire was safe for later when Santa would be coming down the chimney! When we got Owen up on Christmas day, he came into our bedroom and opened his stocking. He wasn't entirely interested in the presents at first, although the apple and the orange caught his eye. Once we switched off his baby einstein DVD, he started to look at his presents. Once we all felt a bit more awake, we went throught to see what Santa had brought. Owen seemed a bit underwhelmed again, and not really wanting to open his presents, but that was just until he found out what was in them. He soon got into the swing of opening presents and playing with the toys. Santa had left all his stuff in the winnie the pooh tent he brought, and some of those got left until the next day to open. Here is Owen with some of his other things.


We don't have a lot of photos, because we were busy taking video, then I was busy cooking once we got back from church. He really enjoyed his lunch, and ate a lot, even though we fed him at one and then again at three. Owen and Mum went to Auntie Jean and Uncle Hop's in the afternoon, where Owen had a great time playing with blocks, and he found a place to hide and jump out on his Mum - cheeky monkey! Dad had gone back to bed, but he got up again and played for a bit longer, so Owen had a really good day. Boxing day was a quiet day all round, Owen and Mum played and relaxed while Dad rested. The 27th was busy though, as we had to pack all our clothes etc for going South, and thought we better take down all the Christmas decorations too, since two of us wouldn't be back until January. Then we tidied the house, and messed it up again when I couldn't find my purse, five minutes before we had to leave to catch the flight!
We got there Ok, though, and even though Owen stayed awake for the whole flight and the drive in the car to Gran and Di's, he rallied and had enough energy to open all his presents there. He loved Gran and Di's house, and Mum and Dad enjoyed their days (and whole night!) out in Edinburgh and Glasgow with Auntie Karen. Just as Dad was going home on the 31st, Mum was coming down with Dad's bug, and then Uncle John and Di got it. So it was hard going the next few days, and no pictures were taken!
Once we got back, everyone recovered and now we are all back to normal, with Owen quite happy to be back at nursery. This picture was taken in December, and I love their matching T-shirts, and the way Michaela is trying to boss Owen around, and look after him at the same time, she is really good at that!

eventful weeks..

The past few weeks have been very eventful for us. Grandma came in the first week of the October holidays, then Gran came in the second week. After that we were busy preparing for Owen's Halloween party, then Dad went away on holiday. He came back yesterday, then Mum is off on a school trip on Wednesday. Things should get back to normal after that.

Here's a few photos from when Grandma was here. She entertained Owen in the bath:

And kept him company in the couch while he watched 'In the night garden', his favourite TV programme. It is our favourite too, because before it was part of our night time routine Owen cried every night while getting his PJs on.


They had all kinds of fun together, and we even got to escape on a mini holiday for a night in Lerwick which was lovely - out to the pub, takeaway pizza, a lie in and a roll top bath. It was bliss. We also had an incident which Owen didn't enjoy, while we were outside feeding the pony who lived in the field outside the door. Owen was feeding him a piece of bread, and the horses lip touched his hand - Grandma would have heard his screams if she had been back in Spain! Here he is:


After Grandma went away Owen was a bit sad, because he really liked having her here. He was a bit confused when Gran turned up the next day, but he soon figured out what was going on. He will love anyone who is prepared to read him Room on the Broom, which Mum and Dad both know off by heart now, since we read it at least once each per day. He just adores it, especially his favourite page with the dragon:

Once he was used to Gran, we had all kinds of fun. One of his best days was when we went down the beach, we took him on his bike, and he really enjoyed the trip as well as the playing by the water. Mum feels guilty for taking him in the car now! Here he is before we went, talking to Cissy from next door:When he realised where we going, he made a run for it:
I will post again with halloween etc pictures, but this last one will prove that the pony had no hard feelings. I don't know where they have gone, but we have a couple of sheep now instead, and Owen quite likes them too.

the blog is back!

It has been a long time since I was here blogging, because we lost our wireless connection and Alex pinched all my photos to back them up - they're nice and safe, but not so easy to put on the blog. We have done so much in between that I can't remember it all, so I will just tell you about this past week.
Owen is walking pretty well now, but we haven't taken any photos of that. I will make sure we do this week. He still loves his bathtime, especially if there are lots of bubbles:

He is also really loving reading right now. He doesn't always let us read to him, he often insists on reading it himself. He will play at reading for ages, which is great. Set him down with room on the broom and you might get half an hour of peace! It also livens up those dull nappy changes for him:


We had incredible weather this weekend, on Saturday morning we went to the park without our coats on. Owen's favourite activity is driving the train. He goes to Spain to his Grandma's house, and down to Fife to his Gran and Di's house.


We went to the beach in the afternoon. It has been a while since he was there, and I don't think he remembered the sea, he seemed amazed by it. He liked knocking down the sandcastles I built for him, and he kept trying to escape. He didn't like walking in his wellies, so it was all crawling down at the beach.




Last photo for now is of Owen after his new favourite snack. He gets a little bit of Mum's toast with chocolate spread sometimes. Don't worry about it not being nutritious, since it ends up all over his hands and face instead of in his mouth.

back home, for a little while

Owen and I are looking forward to going back South tomorrow. No great news in the meantime, we have all just been enjoying family time together. Here's a little bit of news on what Owen has been up to.

Last week, I was running his bath and he was pottering around the bathroom. I heard him behind me, going 'num, num, num' and I turned around to find him eating soap. With bubbles coming out of his mouth! He was really enjoying it, too. I kept the soap to show Alex when he got home, it had teeth marks in it.

He finally learned to clap yesterday, I tried to teach him for a while, but he didn't do it. I used to say hooray, and clap my hands to get him to copy me. Then I gave up, and then he just did it, for no good reason. I was saying 'hooray' about something, and he looked thoughtful, and then clapped his hands. Now I have hope that he might one day start waving goodbye. Michaela is so advanced at that, that she starts saying 'ta ta' and waving if she is bored of having you around!

We all went out for dinner yesterday. It was to celebrate the anniversary of his due date, his 'should have been' birthday. I promised Alex we would go out since he missed Owen's real birthday party. We went to our favourite Indian restaurant and Owen really enjoyed it. He sat in an ordinary seat and thought he was very big and smart. He enjoyed a taste of poppadom, and loved our veggie and lamb kormas. When the naan bread came, he shouted 'nan, nan' which he says all the time, but it was good timing and he looked very clever. He didn't get to eat all of this poppadom!

Here he is walking around the house. He goes round all the walls, and doesn't fancy walking without having something to lean on. He did just start standing still without holding on today, but only for a little bit until he realised, and grabbed something. It used to be that you went out the room to do something and he cried on the floor until you came back. Now he follows you, using walls and doors and whatever he can to get there.

He saw Austin feeding himself when we were down, and he has decided that he is big enough to do it too. (Austin has given up, because he gets more by being fed, but Owen hasn't figured that out yet.) He makes a huge mess, and his favourite is to lift the bowl over his head and round onto the floor. It takes concentration!

It was eleven o'clocks today, and we went to Michaela's, taking some baking and stuff with us. When we came to go home, we realised Owen didn't have his coat, so he got Michaela's bright pink one. He didn't seem to mind wearing a girl's coat, but that is maybe because he had a ginger oatcake in his mouth.

Final photo from when we were south and Owen was eating out. The jars we use for travelling are great, because the lid doubles as a toy!

Sorry this is so late...

OK, so a broken foot shouldn't affect my typing ability, but it has been a strange time lately. I am getting pretty good at walking now, though, as long as I don't have to go far or fast.
After the accident happened, Grandma very kindly stayed on for an extra weeks "holiday" looking after me and Owen. As you can see, he got pretty comfortable with having her around!



Then it was Gran and Di's turn to look after us for two weeks. Lucky them! highlights from their house include:

getting stuck in to his first pizza..


and being told 'no' (to playing with the sockets behind us)..


Being South also gave Owen the chance to spend time with his Cousins too, which he really enjoyed. Our favourite day out was East Links farm park, with loads of great things for the kids to do.

Big cousin Toby beating his Dad and Di on the go-karts.

Owen tried out lots of new ways to travel..

And Owen and little cousin Austin enjoy the swing.



Having technical problems tonight, so that is it for now, except I would like to say thank you to the very many people who have helped us out over the past few weeks. It really has been appreciated. More soon!